Rachmaninoff Quotes

• [On Rachmaninoff:] He was the most Russian of them all, like a cathedral in the snow. Holy, wintry, infinite, he was all the Russias.

  Dagmar Godowsky

  Music, Russia, Snow

  Dagmar Godowsky (1958). “First Person Plural: The Lives of Dagmar Godowsky”, Viking Adult

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• Opinion in all parts of the world would agree that Rachmaninoff is the most complete of living masters of the instrument; his technique is comprehensive, and he is, of course, musical to his bone's marrow. Most important of all, he is a composer, and for this reason he is able to approach a work as none of his pianist contemporaries can approach one - that is, from the inside, as an organic and felt creative process.

  Sergei Rachmaninoff

  Creative, Musical, Important

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• Composers can do things that weren't allowed in the 17th century. Until we had composers like Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff to break the rules.

  Aaron Zigman

  Break, Century, Composer

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• What were you going to do tonight?" "I was going to listen to the songs of Rachmaninoff." "Who's that?" "A dead Russian.

  Charles Bukowski

  Song, Tonight

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• People think I am crazy because they see me doing stand-up, but I am generally not. I am very sad. I'm one of those guys that lights candles and listens to Rachmaninoff.

  Bobby Lee

  Crazy, Thinking, Light

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• My father ran the gamut: a favorite of his was Josef Hofmann, but there was also Friedman, Rachmaninoff, Godowsky, Lhevinne, Moiseiwitsch, Paderewski, etc.

  Marc-Andre Hamelin

  Father, Etc, Ran

  Interview with Elijah Ho, www.thecounterpoints.com. November 8, 2013.

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• John Lennon was brilliant, so gifted, so giving. He was the Bach, Beethoven, the Rachmaninoff of our time.

  Sid Bernstein

  Giving, Brilliant, Lennon

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• Lauryn Hill, P-Funk, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy - I have a very diverse palate for music. I can go from Judy Garland to Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Wonder to Rachmaninoff. I just love great music.

  Janelle Monae

  Enemy, Wonder, Hills

  "Hot Tracks: Janelle Monáe". Interview With Lisa Robinson, www.vanityfair.com. September 2012.

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• Rachmaninoff made a musician out of me. His 'Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini' was the piece that sent me into raptures. It spoke to me. To me, it was a tender entreaty for the misunderstood.

  Joni Mitchell

  Misunderstood, Musician, Pieces

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• It has always been Oscar Peterson. He is my Rachmaninoff.

  Shirley Horn

  Oscars

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• I enjoy the kind of characters that allow you to write the dark stuff. I love Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, and when I'm writing for Dracula or Jekyll & Hyde, I get a chance to use that vocabulary.

  Frank Wildhorn

  Character, Writing, Dark

  Interview with Pati Buehler, www.broadwayworld.com. June 13, 2004.

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